2020 ain't done y'all : Monkeys steal coronavirus blood samples in India https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...onavirus-blood-samples-in-india-idUSKBN2351KV
A more thorough analysis of excess US mortalities in 2020 than the one some of us did on our own: https://www.washingtonpost.com/grap...um=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most should put the mumblings about an over count to bed, if people want to look objectively.
The context is Denmark and Norway have opened their borders to each other to allow for travel, both have done great jobs significantly reducing spread, of course, both still have travel from Sweden banned as they have made the butt**** stupid decisions to attempt herd immunity by essentially encouraging everyone in the country to get sick.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/27/bad-state-coronavirus-data-trump-reopening-286143 States of every color lying about their data...Test counts inflated, death tolls deflated, metrics shifted. Be safe. Be prepared people.
Filed under "yeah, i dunno ..." The drug is Avifavir (apparently based upon Favipiravir, an existing medication used to treat influenza) Russians claim to have an effective treatment for the coronavirus, which hospitals will start using in June https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/01/russia-approves-drug-to-treat-covid-19-hospitals-to-use-in-june.html
I mentioned before about having church meetings outside if people want the face to face time. Maybe it'll make it easier for people to decide not to suffocate ourselves with CO2 https://theweek.com/articles/916598/case-doing-everything-outside There are many things we don't know about COVID-19. But we do know being outside is safer than being inside, where we're forced physically closer together and ventilation systems are a known culprit in spreading infection. It's not impossible to catch the coronavirus outdoors, but public health experts consider outside transmission extremely unlikely if people take appropriate precautions. "I think outdoors is so much better than indoors in almost all cases," Virginia Tech engineering professor and aerosol expert Linsey Marr told The New York Times. "There's so much dilution that happens outdoors. As long as you're staying at least 6 feet apart, I think the risk is very low." This means two things. First, people going to the beach, pool, or park aren't being reckless if they're maintaining distance from others and practicing proper hygiene. And second, if we want to safely move toward normalcy before there's a vaccine, reliable treatments, or widespread natural immunity, we should move life outside as often as we can. This isn't the wild idea it may seem. In Scotland, an outdoor learning model is being considered as an option for safely reopening schools this fall. "There are a growing number of fully and partially outdoor childcare settings in Scotland," Scottish Children's Minister Maree Todd said to The Guardian. "This model could have many benefits for maintaining physical distancing and minimizing risk of transmission as part of the transition from lockdown back into early learning and childcare and school." Scotland's "forest schools" offer unique benefits for a few students already. Even very small children learn to happily spend all day outside in the rain (a lot of rain — it's Scotland) and the sun alike. Taking education outside obviously has its obstacles. Weather is a real consideration, particularly for older students whose coursework can't center on wandering through the woods. Computer labs can't move outdoors; bathroom logistics must be settled; and school-provided lunches probably require a cafeteria kitchen. But is the alternative truly better? CDC guidance for opening schools and other childcare facilities proposes masking children from age 3 onward. Does that seem likely to succeed? Or how do you keep a class of 20 kindergartners from touching each other's toys, as the CDC suggests? And who is going to disinfect every desk in every room while high schoolers change classes? Do we want to give teachers another responsibility? Do we trust 14-year-olds to do it themselves? Or consider the guidance to create one-way walking paths in school halls. Have you seen middle schoolers when the bell rings? Education isn't the only activity we could shift outdoors. Already some cities are considering closing parking lanes or entire streets to give restaurants more room for "patio" seating. Reopening at 25 or 50 percent capacity to comply with distancing regulations often won't be feasible: Many restaurants would spend more money on basic operating costs than they can earn at that scale. The only way to make reopening better than hibernation is to increase outdoor capacity, and, especially in older downtown areas, the street is the only space restaurants can use to expand. Gathering outside could work for churches and other religious assemblies, too. Drive-in services don't strike me as much better than a Zoom call — maybe they're preferable for congregations with more cars and fewer tech skills, but they can't really replicate the normal feeling of community. Meeting outdoors would put churches in compliance with many reopening plans, like California's, and missing comforts like pews and childcare would encourage shorter, safer services. The inevitable protest to this proposal, of course, is that being outside is often inconvenient. It is too hot or too cold or too wet or too windy. We live in buildings for a reason. But under pandemic conditions, indoors can become the more inconvenient place. The comparison to consider is not outside vs. inside but outside with approximate normalcy vs. inside with endless contortions in pursuit of safety. And being outdoors will become easier the more we do it. It takes about two weeks for our bodies to acclimate to cold or hot temperatures, and acclimation is more thorough than you might expect. (My first winter in Minnesota, I was pleasantly surprised to find a sunny 35 degrees feels like t-shirt weather after weeks of sub-zero nights.) We can get used to more than temperature, too. There's an idea in psychology called the "hedonic treadmill" which says our baseline for contentment tracks with our conditions. We can get used to living happily with less — or take for granted living with more. This is how people in other times and places could be satisfied with conditions we find unfathomable. And doing more stuff outside isn't exactly unfathomable. It's good for us, providing benefits that are especially needful in this pandemic, like better sleep, lower anxiety, and more vitamin D. We might actually come to like it. We might accidentally learn to live outside even after this pandemic is over.
We need to cut even more funding to the National Park Service. They're enjoying themselves way too much in 2020...
Harris County Confirmed COVID-19 Deaths* 7-day rolling average. *Actual deaths are probably double this, but should show general trend. Not sure what the number needs to be before contact tracing is effective, but would guess about 200 people daily (1.5 *2/0.017) are being infected in Harris County.
Hospitalization in the greater Houston area has been steadily going up over the last couple of weeks. This is not unexpected with things opening up, but still disconcerting to see. Data can be on the TMC site: https://www.tmc.edu/coronavirus-updates/ ICU occupancy is also going up.
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/animated-world-map 3 countries where caseload is increasing most quickly per day: US Russia Brazil fairly different climates and medical systems and gene pools. Just can’t figure out what they have in common.